RIP Fluffy

Today we had to have Fluffy put down.

Fluffy was originally Oldest Daughters cat. She aquired her as a kitten when she was living with her boyfriend. They lived in the middle of town, so Fluffy's first 2 years were as an indoor cat, playing with her foster sister, and skulking around looking like a bottle brush when I came to visit with the dog.

When daughter and the boyfriend split up, she couldn't have a cat in her new appartment, and so we adopted her. She was a strange animal, not fond of cuddling, especially of being picked up, and yet she quickly took to husband (he is a magnet for shy cats - we've seen it before, in Ithaca, when Katya came out of hiding to perch on his lap). After trying out various locations - the shelf over my desk , the top of the rerfrigerator - she settled on husbands vicinity as her favorite sleeping place: either a space in the bookshelf next to his desk, or on the desk itself, preferably, to husband's chagrin, on the computer. She even accepted being picked up and cuddled by him, sometimes seeming to be on theverge of purring.

Moving to our house gave Fluffy's life a new dimention. She was now able to go outside, and she revelled in it. She would go out in any weather,and we found her muddy pawprints all over. That thing about cats being so particular about keeping their paws clean? Well, it didn't apply to Fluffy! She was in the trees trying to reach the magpies nests, or on the veranda roof, where she could look down on the bird feeder, which was just out of reach. We could usually tell where she was, from the scolding of the magpies that followed her wherever she went.

She quickly got used to the dogs, and took no nonsense from them, standing her ground and just staring them down. She was always in competition with Puseline for the position of Top Cat. She was very curious,creaping into any enclosed space: a box, gym bag, open suitcase, closet. She even worked on opening closet doors herself, and then we'd find her dirty paw prints and hair on the clean sheets or husbands running clothes...

About 6 weeks ago, she suddenly dissapeared. A few weeks later, on a walk with the dogs, husband got into a conversation with a neighbor when Lucy showed an unusual interest in a storehouse. Apparently a badgerr had made his home there. She mentioned having seen a dead cat a few weeks previously, which had fallen victim to the badger. On further inquiry, she said the cat was white, with grey and black. So we wrote Fluffy off as dead. Imagine our surprise when she suddenly showed up on the doorstep, hungry and lonely 2 days ago. We were so pleased to see her again! Then last night husband was woken up by a terrible caterwauling at 2 am. On coming down to investigate, he found Fluffy crying with an open wound on her leg, ,pieces of bone sticking out. He made her comfortable in the cat bed, and took her to the vet this morning. But there was nothing they could do. The whole hind leg was shattererd, from the hocks to the hip. The vet said that most likely she'd been hit by a car, and had dragged herself home. So we put her out of her misery.

We will miss Fluffy, rubbing against our legs, purring and growling at the same time. I think she had a good life though, and is certainly chasing magpies in cat heaven now. RIP